August 25, 2011

Operator News

Starbucks is the No. 1 food and drink "check in" on Facebook's Places feature, where users can share their current location. The site's other top check-ins are: Buffalo Wild Wings; Chili's; Applebee's; McDonald's; IHOP; Denny's; Olive Garden; T.G.I. Friday's; and The Cheesecake Factory, according to mashable.com, reported The Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Burger King Holdings Inc. introduced oatmeal and is testing smoothies and salads in 100 stores, reported Bloomberg.com. Full Story

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.'s largest shareholder Sardar Biglari called for management to publicly disclose operating information for both its businesses in a letter to SEC, after rejecting the company's offer to view this privately, reported Reuters. Full Story

Retail News

Whole Foods Market will open membership-only Wellness Clubs in a handful of stores over the next three months; the first will open in Dedham, MA. If the test is a success, Whole Foods will roll out the Wellness Clubs in most of its 310 stores, reported USA Today. Full Story

Fewer consumers plan on doing their back-to-school shopping at grocery stores, according to The Checkout, released by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research. Some 43% of back-to-school shoppers claim newspaper circulars are their preferred resource, while 35% are using the internet, up 6% from last year. Two percent will rely on smartphones, unchanged from 2010. Full Story

Wal-Mart is exiting a deal to install 23 state-controlled wine-vending machines in its Pennsylvania stores. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and Wal-Mart are discussing other partnerships, such as a store-within-a-store concept, reported The Philadelphia Inquirer. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Ahold will revamp its Albert Heijn To Go convenience stores in the Netherlands to put a greater emphasis on ready-to-eat goods and plans to extend the format into Germany next year, and potentially also Belgium, reported Reuters. Full Story

Industry News

Sanderson Farms Inc. reported demand at grocery stores for its products held steady during the quarter, but demand in its foodservice unit was "sluggish" and will remain so as long as unemployment remains high. Boneless breast meat prices were down 22% from a year earlier in the quarter ended July 31, while jumbo wing prices fell 27.5%, reported Reuters. Full Story

New! The Food Institute reports on the impact of education in the Aug. 25 edition of the Lempert Report, hosted by Phil Lempert. Click here to view.

Latest sales & earnings for food related companies (Updated Daily - FI Membership Required)

Europeans are cutting spending as fears of a double-dip recession rise. Ahold noted that shoppers are looking for goods on promotion and switching to private label as they try to offset rising food prices, reported Reuters. Full Story

Health News

Male college students typically consumed about five servings of fruit and vegetables per week while females consumed four servings per week, according to a study conducted by Oregon State University published in Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Both males and females were consuming more than 30% of their calories from fat. Full Story

Washington News

A federal appeals panel rejected the request of five Great Lakes states to close Chicago-area shipping locks, citing an earlier ruling that Asian carp does not appear to be an imminent threat, reported Chicago Tribune. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Market News

Sales of fresh sliced apples increased 33% in the past five years. The sliced-apple category tallied about $122 million in sales last year, according to Nielsen data cited by Freytag. Add Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Costco and other retailers that do not share their numbers with Nielsen and the number is closer to $200 million, according to Freytag, reported The Packer Online. Full Story

High f.o.b.s at the end of the 2010-11 apple season may set back sales momentum for the start of the 2011-12 season, stated the executive VP of the Perishables Group. Shippers need to aggressively seek retail promotions and shelf space for the just-starting 2011 crop. Providing consistent f.o.b. pricing that retailers can promote against in the fourth quarter of 2011 will be key, reported The Packer Online. Full Story

The changing global economy is making Florida citrus more competitive with Brazil, noted an agricultural economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Among the factors closing the cost gap are the rising strength of Brazil's currency, the higher cost of labor and the rising cost of Brazilian farmland, particularly in competition with sugar, reported The Lakeland Ledger. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

Meanwhile, a Florida citrus industry group agreed to spend $350,000 more to study the effect of enhanced tree nutrition on the growth and spread of citrus greening disease with the possibility of more to come. The Research Management Committee of the Citrus Research and Education Foundation has spent more than $40 million since 2009 on greening research, reported The Lakeland Ledger. Full Story (Free Registration Required)

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